Personal Resilience Best Practices to Prepare Before, and to Recover after, a Disaster
The literature on psychological resilience is clear: the skills and qualities that predict better recovery from a traumatic event can be cultivated. While resiliency varies from person-to-person, it can be cultivated and strengthened so that you can better weather challenges that come up. Tools to do this can be taught and learned effectively. This is hopeful for future survivors of disasters. Additionally, you benefit from the cultivation of these resiliency practices in your present circumstances, not just for future possible disaster scenarios.
The Inner Resilience Network is collaborating towards a long term vision for catalyzing and supporting personal regenerative/resilience groups for communities across our networks. These groups will be built on best practices and resources around trauma, global and local challenges, community building and intersectional awareness and inclusivity.
We are working on a templates, trainings and resources for groups to modify and adapt to be responsive to the needs of their local community.
Please stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter and if you have an interest in supporting or collaborating on this, contact us at admin@eraofcare.net
Building Personal Resilience Before a Disaster
Cultivate a mindfulness or meditation practice.
There are so many different types of meditation or mindfulness practices that you can choose from. Find one that fits your lifestyle, your belief system and that is something you enjoy enough that you will actually do. Then create a daily space for the practice. Having a daily practice should go right up there with eating and brushing your teeth! Why? Because it builds your ability to ‘witness’ your mind, your life and to take the reins of your thinking. Just like building a muscle in the body, you have to do it regularly to be strong in this. This will bring into your life more equanimity because you get better at observing your situation instead of reacting to it. Needless to say, this is critical in a crisis scenario because you will have greater ability to respond instead of react. Reaction can lead to panic and overwhelm which shuts us down from being able to help. Reacting can cause more harm. Cultivating mindful practices builds your ability to respond effectively. It also gives you immediate benefits in your life in numerous other ways!
Heal past traumas as much as possible
When you are feeling stable and secure, it is a really good time to do the deeper healing on yourself to release old traumas and past hurts. Take time to root out those past traumas, because they continue to live in your body until they’ve had a chance to be released. Trauma acts as a sort of “static” in your system that has the potential to dysregulate your functioning when triggered by an event or memory. The less static in your system, the more you can function well. The more you can function well, the more effectively you will be able to respond to crisis and disasters when they happen. Additionally, and most importantly, past traumas can be triggered by a disaster or crisis situation. Having spent time to heal the past will help you be less susceptible to being sabotaged in your efforts to help yourself and others because of a trigger.
Take good care of your body
Getting regular exercise and eating well makes sense no matter what, but it will really pay off when you need that extra energy and ability to deal with a disaster. Make sure you have in your pantry enough extra healthy food and supplements that are especially nutrient dense and supportive for when you are stressed and going through a crisis. Powdered green drinks, multiminerals, protein powders, magnesium drinks etc are some examples. Taking care of your body and keeping your health a priority is essential to having the personal reserves available to weather a crisis well. And don’t forget brain health too, cognitive function suffers during and after stress. Feed your brain as well as your body.
Invest in your social network, especially those near you
Do what you need to do to heal hurts and resolve conflicts you may have with those you are connected with. If you are there for your relationships, then it is more likely your relationships will be there for you when the time is tough. A social network is one the biggest predictors of resiliency, any effort put into it will be your safety in troubled times. But just as importantly, it will be your joy the rest of the time!
Have an emotional/spiritual “touchstone”
A spiritual practice or touchstone can provide enormous grounding support during a crisis. A touchstone is created by identifying something that you can associate with a reminder to think of what connects you and makes you feel grateful and loved. It can be as simple as putting a timer on your phone to stop and breathe or thinking of ten things you are grateful for. Or associate it with something you do everyday. Create a touchstone that is meaningful for you whenever you do these daily activities. The more you do this as a daily practice, the more helpful it will be for you when life gets crazy. After a disaster, it will be in place in your mind already and you can rely on it to help you find balance. Resourcing is another term that is used for this, and is more specifically applied when it relates to a place in your body that helps you ground and balance (more about resourcing in next section)
Regaining Resilience after a Disaster
Stay Connected
Keep tabs of your loved ones, let them know how you are. Identify friends who are available to talk to. Hugs, walks, talks and sharing meals, the basics of life—are more important than ever.
Slow Down
Once you and your loved ones are out of danger, and basic needs are being met such as food, shelter and water, then it is time to stabilize and to take stock of your well being. To do this requires slowing down. Sleep, stop, breathe. This is sometimes not as easy as it sounds. After a disaster, we have what is called the ‘trauma response”, which can perpetuate a sense of urgency long after the emergency is over. We have to find ways to slow our system down, to de-stress, or we will head into burn out, exhaustion and a myriad of health issues.
Take Stock
After a disaster, we are destabilized psychologically and it is common to feel disoriented and dissociated. Especially if you have past traumas that were triggered on top of the current one.
Take time to take stock, find grounding. This is essential. Taking stock means checking in with all levels of your life and see what's needed, what's missing for you to regain balance. Ground and stabilize. There are many practices you can do to help your body and mind find balance, we have just a few of them listed on our “quick tips” handout.
Increase Self- Care (more than you think!)
Self care involves many activities, but they all are geared towards your personal balance and well being. These things include everything from being sure you are drinking enough clean water, taking herbs or supplements to cleanse toxic exposures, meditation, massages, speaking with a counselor, exercise, listening to your favorite music or reading a good book. Give yourself time. More time than you may think. Also self care also means avoiding those things which are not healthy for you, such as toxic substances or food, or finding healthy boundaries and tools around things that upset you (for example: or ways to navigate challenging relationships..
Tracking and Resourcing Your Body
To help yourself come back to a place of balance, “a resilient zone”, notice what is happening in your body in the present moment. Learn to tell the difference between sensations of upset and turmoil (that fight, flight or freeze state) and sensations of wellbeing and balance. When we tune in to our bodies, we can learn physical signs so that when you are thrown out of your resilient zone, you can recognize it and help it get back to balance. The second step for coming back to normal is through “resourcing”: intentionally turning your thoughts toward supportive, positive personal resources like a happy memory, a loved one, a place in nature, an activity you enjoy, a pet; anything that helps you feel a sense of joy, gratitude or peace. There are also internal resources such as a sense of personal strength or a reminder of your compassion or a spiritual connection.
Create Mindful Structure
Likely all your routines will have been disrupted. One you are stabilized, it's important to bring in some basic structure, reinstate a practice and routines again because they help you ground and stabilize-- but do so mindfully! Maybe less structure than before is healthier for you now. Leave space for doing nothing, and as already stated, schedule in extra time for self-care. This definitely should include some form or movement or exercise, as this helps the body release the build up of stress.
Engage with your Community
To help with recovery efforts and other meaningful activities can help your own mental health significantly. Just be careful to keep within reasonable parameters for your capacity, don’t overdo it. Often people will use helping others as a way to bypass their own trauma. Staying engaged AND doing self-care, in balance, is the best. And always remember that self care is essential, remember the adage about putting on your own oxygen mask first! That said, going out and helping others has so much positive effect on us psychologically, and helps to dissolve feelings of helplessness--a big stressor during times of crisis.
Rebuild, Recover and Transform
Once people are stabilized and out of survival mode is usually the hardest on our long term resilience, because all the first responders have gone, the assistance may be scaled back and people are scattering to their respective lives. Now is when PTSD or grief really starts to show up. Take extra care during this time, and the long haul. Post disaster resilience needs the most attention a year or more out after an event.
If you understand this, you can pace yourself and normalize feelings that come up. Normalizing our feelings is essential for navigating through them, getting the support and care we need and then to learn from them in order to strengthen your wellness. You are human and there is nothing wrong with you when difficult feelings come up or won’t go away. It is time to really practice this list and get support!.
Written/compiled by jul bystrova
The literature on psychological resilience is clear: the skills and qualities that predict better recovery from a traumatic event can be cultivated. While resiliency varies from person-to-person, it can be cultivated and strengthened so that you can better weather challenges that come up. Tools to do this can be taught and learned effectively. This is hopeful for future survivors of disasters. Additionally, you benefit from the cultivation of these resiliency practices in your present circumstances, not just for future possible disaster scenarios.
The Inner Resilience Network is collaborating towards a long term vision for catalyzing and supporting personal regenerative/resilience groups for communities across our networks. These groups will be built on best practices and resources around trauma, global and local challenges, community building and intersectional awareness and inclusivity.
We are working on a templates, trainings and resources for groups to modify and adapt to be responsive to the needs of their local community.
Please stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter and if you have an interest in supporting or collaborating on this, contact us at admin@eraofcare.net
Building Personal Resilience Before a Disaster
Cultivate a mindfulness or meditation practice.
There are so many different types of meditation or mindfulness practices that you can choose from. Find one that fits your lifestyle, your belief system and that is something you enjoy enough that you will actually do. Then create a daily space for the practice. Having a daily practice should go right up there with eating and brushing your teeth! Why? Because it builds your ability to ‘witness’ your mind, your life and to take the reins of your thinking. Just like building a muscle in the body, you have to do it regularly to be strong in this. This will bring into your life more equanimity because you get better at observing your situation instead of reacting to it. Needless to say, this is critical in a crisis scenario because you will have greater ability to respond instead of react. Reaction can lead to panic and overwhelm which shuts us down from being able to help. Reacting can cause more harm. Cultivating mindful practices builds your ability to respond effectively. It also gives you immediate benefits in your life in numerous other ways!
Heal past traumas as much as possible
When you are feeling stable and secure, it is a really good time to do the deeper healing on yourself to release old traumas and past hurts. Take time to root out those past traumas, because they continue to live in your body until they’ve had a chance to be released. Trauma acts as a sort of “static” in your system that has the potential to dysregulate your functioning when triggered by an event or memory. The less static in your system, the more you can function well. The more you can function well, the more effectively you will be able to respond to crisis and disasters when they happen. Additionally, and most importantly, past traumas can be triggered by a disaster or crisis situation. Having spent time to heal the past will help you be less susceptible to being sabotaged in your efforts to help yourself and others because of a trigger.
Take good care of your body
Getting regular exercise and eating well makes sense no matter what, but it will really pay off when you need that extra energy and ability to deal with a disaster. Make sure you have in your pantry enough extra healthy food and supplements that are especially nutrient dense and supportive for when you are stressed and going through a crisis. Powdered green drinks, multiminerals, protein powders, magnesium drinks etc are some examples. Taking care of your body and keeping your health a priority is essential to having the personal reserves available to weather a crisis well. And don’t forget brain health too, cognitive function suffers during and after stress. Feed your brain as well as your body.
Invest in your social network, especially those near you
Do what you need to do to heal hurts and resolve conflicts you may have with those you are connected with. If you are there for your relationships, then it is more likely your relationships will be there for you when the time is tough. A social network is one the biggest predictors of resiliency, any effort put into it will be your safety in troubled times. But just as importantly, it will be your joy the rest of the time!
Have an emotional/spiritual “touchstone”
A spiritual practice or touchstone can provide enormous grounding support during a crisis. A touchstone is created by identifying something that you can associate with a reminder to think of what connects you and makes you feel grateful and loved. It can be as simple as putting a timer on your phone to stop and breathe or thinking of ten things you are grateful for. Or associate it with something you do everyday. Create a touchstone that is meaningful for you whenever you do these daily activities. The more you do this as a daily practice, the more helpful it will be for you when life gets crazy. After a disaster, it will be in place in your mind already and you can rely on it to help you find balance. Resourcing is another term that is used for this, and is more specifically applied when it relates to a place in your body that helps you ground and balance (more about resourcing in next section)
Regaining Resilience after a Disaster
Stay Connected
Keep tabs of your loved ones, let them know how you are. Identify friends who are available to talk to. Hugs, walks, talks and sharing meals, the basics of life—are more important than ever.
Slow Down
Once you and your loved ones are out of danger, and basic needs are being met such as food, shelter and water, then it is time to stabilize and to take stock of your well being. To do this requires slowing down. Sleep, stop, breathe. This is sometimes not as easy as it sounds. After a disaster, we have what is called the ‘trauma response”, which can perpetuate a sense of urgency long after the emergency is over. We have to find ways to slow our system down, to de-stress, or we will head into burn out, exhaustion and a myriad of health issues.
Take Stock
After a disaster, we are destabilized psychologically and it is common to feel disoriented and dissociated. Especially if you have past traumas that were triggered on top of the current one.
Take time to take stock, find grounding. This is essential. Taking stock means checking in with all levels of your life and see what's needed, what's missing for you to regain balance. Ground and stabilize. There are many practices you can do to help your body and mind find balance, we have just a few of them listed on our “quick tips” handout.
Increase Self- Care (more than you think!)
Self care involves many activities, but they all are geared towards your personal balance and well being. These things include everything from being sure you are drinking enough clean water, taking herbs or supplements to cleanse toxic exposures, meditation, massages, speaking with a counselor, exercise, listening to your favorite music or reading a good book. Give yourself time. More time than you may think. Also self care also means avoiding those things which are not healthy for you, such as toxic substances or food, or finding healthy boundaries and tools around things that upset you (for example: or ways to navigate challenging relationships..
Tracking and Resourcing Your Body
To help yourself come back to a place of balance, “a resilient zone”, notice what is happening in your body in the present moment. Learn to tell the difference between sensations of upset and turmoil (that fight, flight or freeze state) and sensations of wellbeing and balance. When we tune in to our bodies, we can learn physical signs so that when you are thrown out of your resilient zone, you can recognize it and help it get back to balance. The second step for coming back to normal is through “resourcing”: intentionally turning your thoughts toward supportive, positive personal resources like a happy memory, a loved one, a place in nature, an activity you enjoy, a pet; anything that helps you feel a sense of joy, gratitude or peace. There are also internal resources such as a sense of personal strength or a reminder of your compassion or a spiritual connection.
Create Mindful Structure
Likely all your routines will have been disrupted. One you are stabilized, it's important to bring in some basic structure, reinstate a practice and routines again because they help you ground and stabilize-- but do so mindfully! Maybe less structure than before is healthier for you now. Leave space for doing nothing, and as already stated, schedule in extra time for self-care. This definitely should include some form or movement or exercise, as this helps the body release the build up of stress.
Engage with your Community
To help with recovery efforts and other meaningful activities can help your own mental health significantly. Just be careful to keep within reasonable parameters for your capacity, don’t overdo it. Often people will use helping others as a way to bypass their own trauma. Staying engaged AND doing self-care, in balance, is the best. And always remember that self care is essential, remember the adage about putting on your own oxygen mask first! That said, going out and helping others has so much positive effect on us psychologically, and helps to dissolve feelings of helplessness--a big stressor during times of crisis.
Rebuild, Recover and Transform
Once people are stabilized and out of survival mode is usually the hardest on our long term resilience, because all the first responders have gone, the assistance may be scaled back and people are scattering to their respective lives. Now is when PTSD or grief really starts to show up. Take extra care during this time, and the long haul. Post disaster resilience needs the most attention a year or more out after an event.
If you understand this, you can pace yourself and normalize feelings that come up. Normalizing our feelings is essential for navigating through them, getting the support and care we need and then to learn from them in order to strengthen your wellness. You are human and there is nothing wrong with you when difficult feelings come up or won’t go away. It is time to really practice this list and get support!.
Written/compiled by jul bystrova